Treatments with implantable neurostimulation systems have become increasingly common in recent years. While such systems have shown promise in treating a number of conditions, effectiveness of treatment may vary considerably between patients. A number of factors may lead to the very different outcomes that patients experience, and viability of treatment can be difficult to determine before implantation. In many such applications, a stimulation lead includes an array of electrodes to treat one or more target nerve structures. The electrodes are often mounted together on a multi-electrode lead, and the lead implanted in tissue of the patient at a position that is intended to result in electrical coupling of the electrode to the target nerve structure, typically with at least a portion of the coupling being provided via intermediate tissues.
Stimulation leads may be placed transcutaneously as part of the lead placement procedure during which the stimulation lead may be tested for electrical continuity and to verify accurate placement through impedance, EMG, patient response to stimulation, and the like, before it is implanted permanently.
Neurostimulation leads often include a plurality of electrodes that are individually verified. The conventional approach in sacral neuromodulation therapy is to use a single-contact, such as a “j-clip” or alligator clip, similar to those often used in electronics applications. The single-contact clip is connected to one electrode to test one electrode channel at a time. For stimulation leads having multiple electrodes, this one-at-a-time process must be repeated until each channel has been verified. Repetitively performing verification adds needless time and complexity to the medical procedure, consequently increasing procedure cost and length of patient exposure to the procedure. Therefore, a need exists to provide apparatus and methods that allow for verifying stimulation leads with a plurality of electrodes without the repetitive approach currently used.